5 surprises from Round 1 at the Masters Tournament

AUGUSTA, Ga. – You can parse and predict, obsess over the stats and study the historical record, but the Masters Tournament is going to surprise. It always does.

A player who four-putted the first hole was one of the day’s big winners.

A 63-year-old man beat the most prolific winner in the field (and a lot of others).

And the guy with the messiest, craziest shirt played the cleanest, best golf.

Here are five big surprises from the first round.

The opening hole was no indication of anything

Jon Rahm four-putted the opener for a double-bogey 6 that would surely put him in a foul mood and send him spiraling out of the tournament. Right? Wrong. He made seven birdies and an eagle to shoot a 7-under 65 and was tied at the top with Viktor Hovland and Brooks Koepka.

“If you’re going to make a double or four-putt or anything,” Rahm said, “it might as well be the first hole, (since you then have) 71 holes to make it up.”

Shane Lowry missed a 30-inch putt at the first but shot 4-under 68.

Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent, 19, birdied the first, suggesting this special exemption was going to contend in his first look at Augusta National. Alas, Sargent bogeyed the second, triple-bogeyed the third, doubled the 11th and shot 77.

The Tiger group newsmaker was Viktor Hovland

Norway’s favorite son came out of the gate strong, wearing some kind of hibiscus piña colada shirt that set Golf Twitter aflutter. (“I had nothing to do with it,” he said. “I just wear what they tell me to wear.”) Then, playing alongside five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods and Xander Schauffele, he eagled the par-5 second hole and shot a 7-under 65.

Hovland hadn’t finished better than T21 in three previous Masters starts but was coming off a T3 at THE PLAYERS Championship. Still, getting paired with Woods isn’t always easy.

“I was chatting with him in the locker room this morning,” Shane Lowry said. “He said it’s his first time playing with Tiger. And I said, ‘Well, that should be interesting.’”

It was, but in a good way. Hovland eagled the par-5 second hole and sprinkled in five birdies against no bogeys. Showing off for Woods is getting to be old hat for Hovland, a two-time winner of the Woods-hosted Hero World Challenge, the limited-field unofficial tournament held in the Bahamas every December.

“Obviously it’s really cool to just be around him,” Hovland said. “He’s been such a huge influence to the game of golf, and obviously watched him hours growing up. And to get to play with him for the first time today was very special, and especially to play this round, as well.”

The Irish guy who did well was Shane Lowry

There were high hopes for Rory McIlroy, who needs to win the Masters for the career Grand Slam. He finished second here a year ago, his hole-out from the right bunker on 18 on Sunday an instant classic. He was third at the recent World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play.

Alas, McIlroy, who has suffered through a series of sluggish starts here, got off to another one as he double bogeyed the seventh hole and was 1 over for his first 12 holes. (He shot an even-par 72.)

Lowry, on the other hand, came into this week under the radar after underwhelming results in his previous six starts here. He’d missed the cut three times, and a T21 last year was his career best.

Naturally, he birdied 7, 8, 9, 15 and 18 to shoot 68, just three off the lead.

“I think it was important to shoot a good score today,” Lowry said. “I was trying not to put too much pressure on myself to do so, but, yeah, I knew going into today how important today’s round is because who knows what the next three days are going to hold.”

Sam Bennett was the amateur to watch

Long-hitting Gordon Sargent, who last year became the first freshman to win the NCAA Championship individual title since 2007, was the first amateur to get a special exemption here since Aaron Baddeley in 2000. No less than Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley was singing his praises.

It was U.S. Amateur champion and Texas A&M golfer Sam Bennett, though, who torched Augusta National. Playing with his college coach on the bag, Bennett went 4 under for the first six holes, including an eagle at the par-5 second. He signed for a 68, while Sargent shot 77.

“It was a long wait,” said Bennett, whose 68 was the best round by an amateur in a major since Hovland shot 67 in the final round of the 2019 U.S. Open. “This morning I was anxious. I was fiddling around. I couldn't really sit still. I was ready to get off that box.

“I just enjoy it,” he continued. “That’s where I want to be, to be able to hit those shots with the crowds and the pressure. I loved it. … I'm experienced. I feel like I'm ready for this stage. I haven't played my best in college golf, but when the pressure is on, I tend to play pretty well.”

Fred Couples, 63, dusted players a third his age

It’s been 31 years since Couples won the Masters. It’s been five since he made the cut here.

So, naturally, Couples birdied four of his last seven holes to shoot 1-under 71, beating youngsters like Sahith Theegala (73) and Min Woo Lee (75) and even bettering more established PGA TOUR winners like J.T. Poston (74), Keith Mitchell (75), and even Tiger Woods (74)

Not a bad start for a gu whose back was locked up as he tried to play here in 2022.

“Last year I played – I was really almost a cripple, and I was popcorning it,” said Couples, who in his most recent start finished T10 at The Galleri Classic on PGA TOUR Champions last month. “This year I felt pretty good … if I get going, I can really hit it far enough to play this course.”

Not only was he moving it off the tee, but he was also rolling the ball nicely on the greens.

“The back nine was really, really good golf,” he said, “and I putted really, really well on the back nine. It was like every 8-footer I had or 10-footer, I made.”